{"id":245588,"date":"2026-01-15T06:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245588\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:35:09","slug":"public-reminded-not-to-put-batteries-in-bins-at-home-as-only-half-of-e-waste-being-correctly-recycled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245588\/","title":{"rendered":"Public reminded not to put batteries in bins at home as only half of e-waste being correctly recycled,"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The figures from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) show that recycling rates are stubbornly low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">As households replace old devices with new Christmas gifts received, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Ireland is urging people to recycle used batteries and unwanted small electrical items, rather than storing them away or binning them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">WEEE are planning to deliver one million blue battery recycling boxes to homes nationwide during January, which can be returned for free at participating retailers or local recycling centres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Chief executive of WEEE, Leo Donovan has encouraged households to recycle any of their battery waste, particularly at this time of year, with their figures showing that almost half of all household battery purchases are made during the Christmas shopping period<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cAs decorations have been stored away for another year and space is made for new gifts, now is the ideal time to carry out a battery and e-waste clear-out,\u201d Mr Donovan said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Junior Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Alan Dillon TD and Leo Donovan, CEO of WEEE Ireland. Photo: Paul Moore\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a778ecc1-7fff-44f8-88b1-28ded1c6fd77.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Junior Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Alan Dillon TD and Leo Donovan, CEO of WEEE Ireland. Photo: Paul Moore<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Recycling rates for electronic toys such as gaming consoles, e-scooters and battery-operated action figures, have dropped to just 10pc and WEEE is urging people to recycle used batteries and unwanted small electrical items, rather than storing them away or binning them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cAs well as providing a handy QR code that connects you to a map of hundreds of local drop off points, our blue battery boxes are a simple but powerful reminder that batteries should never go in household bins,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Junior Minister for climate, energy and the environment, Alan Dillon, has said that when we dispose batteries incorrectly, \u201cwe risk fires and environmental pollution\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIt\u2019s free, safe, and it protects our environment. Together, we can keep dangerous chemicals out of landfill and rare materials in circulation,\u201d Mr Dillon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cEvery home in Ireland can make a difference. Batteries don\u2019t belong in the bin \u2013 they belong in recycling,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">A new Light Means of Transport (LMT) lithium battery guide has also been added to the WEEE Ireland website to support consumers on the safe recycling of higher-capacity batteries such as those found in e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mobility and power packs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">More information on WEEE Ireland\u2019s network of free collection points across local authority civic amenity centres and retailers is available at weeeireland.ie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The figures from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) show that recycling rates are stubbornly low. As households&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2885,25666,246,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-245588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-deirdre-barry","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}